The Road to Sochi: U.S. Ski Team Athlete Meg Olenick Gets Creative Rehabbing from Injury

12th December 2012 | Meg Olenick

Olenick's injury rehab hasn't been spent solely in the gym. A hike up Grandeur Peak in Salt Lake City is great rehab work and unveils a beautiful sunset.

Copyright: Jen Hudak

Meg Olenick is one of the young slopestyle stars of the U.S. Freeskiing Team. Raised just outside of Aspen, Colo., Olenick has been skiing park since she was a kid, following in the footsteps of her older brothers, Michael and Peter. After a series of knee injuries, she is looking for a strong season in 2012/2013 to solidify her spot on the 2014 Olympic team. Olenick will be blogging for OnTheSnow this season as she prepares for Sochi in 2014.

With every injury there are bound to be setbacks. I’ve learned this over time and through all the injuries I’ve had. The best thing to do when these setbacks creep up is to stay positive and focus 100 percent on getting back to where you need to be.

For me, at this time, there are many things that I can be doing to get back to hitting jumps and sliding rails. The gym has become my best friend and my physical therapist has become my Sensei. When either of those isn’t available, I have resorted to my foam roller, and judging by the amount of time we have spent together, I would say it is getting pretty serious.

Foam rolling is a type of self-massage that helps alleviate muscle soreness and tightness. Having some free time on my hands and hearing other athletes talk about making their own foam rollers, I decided to dabble in my own DIY foam roller. Here are the steps and the things I used to make my own foam roller.

Things you will need:

- 3” diameter, 12” length PVC pipe.

- Sand paper

- 4 rubber bands

- Yoga mat (or other material for the outside of the PVC)

- Scissors

- All purpose cement (you can get this at any hardware store)

Step 1 – Take your PVC pipe and sand the edges to make it smooth. This shouldn’t take too long if you have coarse grain sandpaper. Also with the sandpaper, sand the outside of the PVC lengthwise and around so that it gets roughed up a bit and the glue will stick better.

Step 2 – Lay the PVC on the yoga mat, or other material you decide to use, and take a measurement of how much yoga mat you are going to need to cover the outside of the PVC. Mark this with a pen or marker and cut the yoga mat to fit.

Step 3- Slather the all-purpose cement everywhere on the PVC pipe and roll the yoga mat around it. The cement does dry fast so this needs to be a quick process. Having someone help you makes it easier.

Step 4 – Take the rubber bands and place them around the yoga mat and PVC to help hold it in place while it dries. (Check on the cement bottle to see how long this is, it can vary for different types).

Step 5 – Voila! You have just made your very own foam roller that you can bring with you everywhere and keep those muscles happy!